Alexa worth activating? Existing or new account?

[PeterSK]

Hi all,
I just got my R1S in a private sale a few weeks ago, and after dealing with vehicle registration and some service issues, I'm at the point where I've mastered basic operation and thinking about whether/how to use Alexa in the car. I've had Teslas for ten years and like the voice command capability, especially for phone/text, navigation and music. So far in the R1S I've just entered destinations via the soft keyboard, called via Siri and played Apple Music via Siri. So navigation would be the most immediate improvement, plus whatever other useful Alexa commands Rivian has built in.

I'm not exactly thrilled about giving Amazon yet more data and information about me, however. We have a few older echo dots at home, and basically just use them for home automation - turning some lights on and off on schedules, or on voice command. Also requesting Apple Music over Sonos speakers, and occasionally asking for weather forecasts or random questions like how old some public figure is. But we do have Prime and buy random things via the app or web a few times a month, and occasionally watch Prime Video.

I've thought about setting up a new account for use in the R1S, to avoid (maybe?) Amazon connecting the dots between my home and vehicle data. But would I be missing out on useful integration between car and home? I'd appreciate thoughts from those more experienced with Rivians and Alex - thanks in advance.
Peter

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[jeeden]

The Alexa in the Rivian works pretty well now. It is very good for navigation and now for turning on the fan in the third row. Looking forward to expanded capability. I also like having it tuned to playlist in Amazon music.

I think you either want to go with an all or nothing approach. If you go to the trouble of having it and using it you want to integrated with your main account so that you can control things in your house (we use it to lock the front door or turn on and off lights and even make announcements at home on the echo dots from anywhere when we're in the Rivian). Like I said we also use it to play our music and playlist that would also be associated with our account.

If you don't want to do all that I don't think you'll be missing a huge amount of capability right now. You can always add it later I guess.

 

[PeterSK]

Thanks, @jeeden I’ll give it a try. Is there a way to do things like check charge level or turn on a/c or heat in the R1 by asking Alexa inside the house? I tried adding a third party skill like that for my Tesla once but it never really worked smoothly.

 

[JMACCA]

Hi all,
I just got my R1S in a private sale a few weeks ago, and after dealing with vehicle registration and some service issues, I'm at the point where I've mastered basic operation and thinking about whether/how to use Alexa in the car. I've had Teslas for ten years and like the voice command capability, especially for phone/text, navigation and music. So far in the R1S I've just entered destinations via the soft keyboard, called via Siri and played Apple Music via Siri. So navigation would be the most immediate improvement, plus whatever other useful Alexa commands Rivian has built in.

I'm not exactly thrilled about giving Amazon yet more data and information about me, however. We have a few older echo dots at home, and basically just use them for home automation - turning some lights on and off on schedules, or on voice command. Also requesting Apple Music over Sonos speakers, and occasionally asking for weather forecasts or random questions like how old some public figure is. But we do have Prime and buy random things via the app or web a few times a month, and occasionally watch Prime Video.

I've thought about setting up a new account for use in the R1S, to avoid (maybe?) Amazon connecting the dots between my home and vehicle data. But would I be missing out on useful integration between car and home? I'd appreciate thoughts from those more experienced with Rivians and Alex - thanks in advance.
Peter

I use Alexa commands for multiple items on the vehicle and have cameras come on as I approach my garage. Prime music sounds great and is my main source of music on the R1S.

 

[godfodder0901]

Thanks, @jeeden I’ll give it a try. Is there a way to do things like check charge level or turn on a/c or heat in the R1 by asking Alexa inside the house? I tried adding a third party skill like that for my Tesla once but it never really worked smoothly.

No, not at the moment.

 

[NY_Rob]

I have had my R1T since Jan and have never enabled Alexa. I do use the voice commands in our Model 3 all the time, and I'll probably enable Alexa in the Rivian once it's performance is up to the Tesla voice command level of efficiency (if it ever gets to that level). But, in the mean time.. it stays disabled.

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